It’s not hard to find dim sum in Hong Kong, but finding the type of traditional place you have likely pictured in your mind is getting difficult these days.Ling Heung is thought to be Hong Kong’s oldest dim sum house. The restaurant can trace its roots back to mainland China in the late 19th century, and has been at its current location since 1996.
Walk upstairs to a brightly-lit, noisy hall filled with round tables; you’ll most likely be sharing space with someone else, probably older customers who still come to Lin Heung every morning to read the paper, sip tea and chat.
Attendants will bring your tea and replenish it with hot water poured from massive kettles, but to order, you’ll need to serve yourself. Head to the large cart loaded with steaming bamboo trays with dim sum, and steam drawers loaded with noodle dishes. Smaller itinerant carts sell fried items or congee. Choose what you want, which will be recorded on your chit, then carry the trays and dishes back to your table.
The vast spectrum of dim sum dishes, including steamed buns, dumplings and rice noodle rolls is available, but specialties at Ling Heung include pork liver siu mai, pork short ribs steamed with fermented beans, minced beef wrapped in caul fat, “cotton chicken” and lotus seed paste buns.
Due to increasing rents and the pandemic, Ling Heung has closed twice, in 2019 and 2022. Under new ownership and seemingly in an effort to appeal to the younger generation, it recently opened a bubble tea counter on the ground floor.